Eva crossed her legs over one another. She had been right in determining that Magnolia was a beautiful town to spend time in. It probably ranked second to none other than her own hometown Era, and that was only so because she was biased. Otherwise, she didn’t know how to explain the fact that she kept coming back to Magnolia over and over again. Four days had passed since she left for Crocus. She came back, after stopping by Era, only yesterday to meet with her modeling manager who, much to Eva’s irritation, had scolded her for hours without stopping.

Now she sat in one of the white wooden chairs in a cake shop flipping through a thin book of cakes and pastries and other items. She wasn’t exactly sure what the place was called since she hadn’t bothered to read the board when her manager dragged her in. But she heard, from her overly excited manager, that it was famous for everything sweet and effectively teeth rotting. Just to appear happy, she tried to giggle and blush excitedly whenever she pointed to a picture in the menu, making her mouth form a big ‘O’. Though honestly, she couldn’t care less about any of them.

Behind her, only a few steps away, was her manager engaged in a deep and seemingly meaningful conversation with the person who ran the shop. All she remembered was that this person’s name started with an O and that he wore a cap. They chatted away about Eva’s modelling career and how they were finally going to shoot an ad for the shop. The cameraman, to her left, was already setting up the lighting and equipment.

This was her punishment for evading work for almost a month and it was first mentioned last night between her manager’s furious scolding. She had, like always, ignored it only until she was rudely forced to wake up early that morning with a loud alarm clock beeping away next to her ears. It didn’t dawn on her until she walked with her manager to the shop and found the cameraman either.

To say the kind of tantrum she wanted to throw right now was huge, would have been an understatement of Eva's irritation. If it wasn’t for the fact that something at the back of her head nagged to stop giving her manager so much trouble, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be sitting there like an obedient doll.

Finn made his way through the Streets of Magnolia, equipped for a day that had gone awry. The original plan was that he and Jake were going to make their way out of Magnolia, into the nearby wildlife to attempt finding something to do. A nearby dungeon, an area of unknown dangers and treasures. A new or previously discovered beast much too close to the town, needing to be slain. A band of robbers who had set up near the town to get adventurers coming to and fro. Anything to put a spark in this otherwise dull day.

It had been canceled on him, of course. He had seen it coming the night before when Jake began panting heavily and walking slower. His voice had become groggy, his eyes heavy, and his complaints louder every hour. It was obvious that the older of the two was feeling sick, but there wasn't much if anything that Finn could do about it. Trying his best to take care of his older brother, the intent had been to ensure that Jake would feel better quickly. It was a labor of love, only partially driven by their desire to adventure.

It had been in vain. The morning came and Jake was as sick as- Well, as sick as a dog. He insisted Finn could go without him, seeing as how Finn had woken up early to put on his clothes, backpack, and to strap in his sword. The young guild member couldn't bring himself to leave his brother on their plans though, and instead insisted on going to get things for when Jake got better. His backpack already contained soup, ginger ale, and light foods. Now all he needed was something for when the dog healed up.

The desire to get them both sweets had brought him to Olly's Cake Shop. It was here that the problems began. Finn could see through the windows clearly that there were people inside talking and hanging out, and yet the door was locked. Taking a second to calmly analyze the situation would have likely led him to the conclusion that it had something to do with the cameras that had been set up.

Finn did not take that second.

Wiggling the door twice, he called into the store. The woman speaking with Olly and the baker himself seemed to not notice Finn, though he couldn't tell if the camera crew or the seated girl could. While the door seemed to be locked, there were clearly people inside. This seemed to mean that the door was only stuck, which led to only a single conclusion. Grabbing the handle with both hands and digging his feet into the earth, Finn gave the door a single yank.

A loud snap was heard as the door cranked open, busting the lock and the part of the wall in which the door had been fastened into. "Fixed it!" As he spoke with joy and pride, Finn stepped into the sweet shop and right up to the shocked and speechless owner of the store. "Vanilla cupcakes please!"

Eva placed her chin on the back of her right hand, still pretending to be interested in the pastries. Her manager was still speaking with the baker though from the sound of it, she guessed that everything was going well. The cameraman didn’t give her much attention as he worked with his equipment either. All in all, she sat in complete silence, getting increasingly bored as each second ticked by. Between the dull moment, Eva even started tapping her feet on the floor but as quietly as possible.

Her eyes wandered all over the shop. In her opinion, there were too much pink. Pink, white, and strawberries seemed to be the these because everywhere she looked, she could see either of these colors. The walls were painted white while at each ends there was a pink wave like pattern that resembled melted frosting dripping down. The couch that laid to a side was pink and resembled something like a strawberry. The curtains were white with strawberry patterns on them. To say the least, everything made Eva want to jump out and run without looking back.

It wasn’t until she heard the rattling of the door that she looked up from the book. To her surprise, she found someone through the glass pushing and pulling on the locked door. Eva parted her lips as to say something but closed it as she wasn’t sure what the right words would be in this situation. But concerned with what the boy was trying to accomplish, Eva stood up to tell him to stop. The door was locked and she didn’t know what kind of fool would actually not realize it. However, Eva was taken aback again when the strange guy just yanked the door open, breaking the lock along with it.

Eva wasn’t the only one who jumped in between the loud noise. The baker’s mouth hung open as he looked at the most likely broken door and then at the boy and back at the door again. He seemed like he wanted to say something but like Eva a few minutes ago, he was also starting to resemble a fish. Unexpectedly enough, her manager didn’t look as shocked as the man he was talking to. He looked at the boy as if he had seen it many times and though Eva wouldn’t admit it, she knew her manager must have developed this immunity while being with her.

And as the men all looked shocked at the boy who barged in screaming for cupcakes, Eva was trying her best to stop herself from laughing her head off. It wasn’t every day that she saw someone like that and it was quite refreshing, honestly. She moved before anyone else did. “Hello,” she began with a hint of a chuckle behind her voice. “I’m sorry but the shop is closed for a photo shoot today. And,” her eyes fell to the broken door and half missing wall, “that door was supposed to be locked”.

Olly snapped awake following her. “You! Why did you do that for?” he exasperated. “Since you seem to have broken my door and my wall, you’re either going to have to pay me or help us with the shooting,” the baker seemed to have decided as he laid down his terms. Eva wasn’t sure if all those words were going to go the right way into this guy. The boy was ignorant enough to not see that the door was locked. She wouldn’t be surprised if he screamed out for more cupcakes. But Eva did think that this boy could make her day worthwhile.

Everyone had turned their eyes to him as if he were in the center of a stage. Their looks varied, and as Finn stood there in a confused silence after his call for cupcakes, he observed each person momentarily. The man who was actually a manager seemed completely unimpressed, holding a gaze that held a mixture of annoyance and mild bemusement. The cameraman seemed absolutely shocked, and the girl whom he had his camera aimed at seemed to feel a mixture of amusement and confusion. As his eyes reached the baker, taking in only the sheer shock and beginning stages of anger, the girl had begun to speak.

As she said her hello, he quickly shot back with a "Heya," of his own. She began to explain the situation to him, but it seemed dumb to him. He had a vague concept of models and what they did, but to close down a shop for it? The man obviously had good already finished, and wasn't it the entire point of a shop to remain busy? Why would they show only a single person enjoying the goods? Before he could truly question it, however, she added in the part of the door.

Glancing down at it, a hand went to his chin. His index finger and thumb cupped his chin perfectly, his three fingers scratching the area beneath the chin as if to consider what she said. "Yeah, he probably needs to fix that." His words had no sooner finished than the baker began shouting at him. Finn jumped slightly, not out of fear but out of surprise. Why was he being yelled at for an accident?

"Oh uh I'll help shooting I guess," he started, dropping his hand down and placing both his palms on his hips. "I only have a sword though, so I'm not sure how I'm going to shoot anything. Can I just bonk it or something?" Finn had matured, honestly he had. This entire situation had caught him completely off guard though, and as such he truly had no idea on how he should have been behaving. So until he was able to catch his bearing, he'd continue the course to figure out what the hell was going on.

Eva, in her twenty one years of life have had many encounters. Most of them quickly left as they came. They were all fleeting with nothing really making a mark on her. She had met people that that she could forget immediately and she had met people that left enough impression on her mind to last in her memory longer. However, they didn't last forever. As soon as their value was lost in her, she lost any interest in them and they faded, completely erased from her past. It is only a few people that ever managed to stay in her mind the longest. And, it was only possible because they shifted in her mind like question marks, not really fitting in anywhere. They were puzzles that Eva liked to solve. This boy, now standing in front of her, was proving to be one such existence.

She wasn't sure why she was interested. Maybe it was the innocence that he showed? She didn't know. All she did register was that he was one of those people she liked to make a puzzle out of solve. People were strange creatures in the fact that within every bit of their action hid their real self. A twitch of their eyes, every curve of their lips, every look and every turn, they always told something or the other about the character. Eva loved to observe and reveal them. This one might just be more simple than she thought, though.

Eva didn't even have to turn around to know that Olly and everyone else behind her was already looking at the boy with gaping mouths. Eva, on the other hand, was trying very hard, almost failing, not to laugh at their faces. It was incredible how a word from the boy about helping them by 'bonking' with his sword rather than 'shooting' had made the whole room act like fishes inside a bowl.

'How fun,' Eva thought as she turned to Olly. "How about we get him to help with our photo shoot? We can do more natural shots with someone like him around. I think it would be fun!" a little bit of persuasion was all it took for both her manager and Olly to agree. Great, now we could let the fun begin.

"Photo... Shoot?" Finn's voice came out in a mumble, hardly audible throughout the store as the old man continued to yell and the rest of the group gave their mixed expressions. Finn was rather confused here, and had begun doing his best to deconstruct the words. He knew what a photo was of course. He and Jake had one back in Worth Woodsea and would take plenty of pictures, marveling at how it worked and wondering if they could ever make one. It was simple enjoyment, but still something in which he could recognize and pinpoint with his knowledge base.

The word shoot is what really threw him off though. What was a photo shoot? He imagined a gun again, and couldn't for the life of him figure it out. Before he could even try to ask, the young lady spoke up and as she spoke he looked taken back. "Oh uh- I'm Finn. Nice to meet you," he said quickly, head retracting back the slightest bit in his confusion. She seemed to carry a lot of authority here in one way or another. As she spoke to Olly, Finn looked over to the manager and then the owner himself. Obviously a photo shoot had something to do with pictures, but he couldn't tell what.

As the baker accepted the demands and ordered that they had to sit down for the normal photos first at least, he seemed to glare at Finn with a deep burning anger. How important could a door really be to the man? It's not like Finn wouldn't pay it back. As they were rushed into the booth and sat down, the camera man began to readjust his equipment and warned them that it might be a moment. This break was probably the only chance Finn would get.

"Uh, Eva?" He put an upwards inflection on her name, his questioning tone hopefully speaking for itself. "What is a photo shoot? Is it going to hurt?"

Everything happened quickly after that. Olly was still on edge but everyone else was doing their job with no other words exchanged. For a short moment, the clatter of euipment and shuffling of hurried feet were all that could be heard in the room. They were going to have the photo shoot in Olly’s kitchen, something about the baker wanting to show his pride and joy to the world and having natural photographs or the other that she wasn’t quite sure of. She had let Hanase san take care of all that complicated stuff. So instead of a normal photo shoot where your background would most likely be nothing but a white wall, they actually had a real background with real things as props.

Eva stood, leaning, behind the perfectly clean kitchen counter with her hands crossed over one another on top of it. Finn stood to her side, seemingly lost as he was from the moment he stepped in. If any of the previous moments were something to go by, Eva had a feeling that they would have a lot of fun that day. In fact, it seemed that she guessed right because the next question he asked had her throwing her head down on her hands, laughing like crazy. Her shoulders shook visibly as laughter rumbled inside of her, everyone else turning to look at them with raised eyebrows and puzzled eyes. It had been a while since Eva had laughed so genuinely. As surprised as she was, she quickly decided that she liked the boy quite a bit.

“I’m sorry,” she tried forming words between her giggles, “But don’t worry, you won’t get hurt in a photo shoot. We are simply going to take some photos and go home,” she explained or at least consoled the boy “Normally, we would wear pretty clothes and make difficult poses with the aim of looking good alone. Today, though, since we have you who is less experienced, we can just gonna do something more natural and less artificial. I think…” she trailed off, tilting her head in deep thought.

She suddenly turned to her manager and the baker. “Olly! How about we just make it really natural and bake a cake together. Finn and I. The photos can be taken in between our effort. Not only will that make it more natural, but we can also convey the joy of making sweets and stuff to the public,” she threw the idea up there and saw both her manager and Olly turn to each other. They seemed to discuss a few things until Olly disappeared behind a door to another room. He came back with a few supplies afterwards, a bag of flour, sugar, some eggs, and all those things that they would need to bake.

As she explained what a photo shoot was through tears and laughter, a look of understanding dawned on his face. Gentle hammering his right fist down onto his left palm, simulating an "Aha!" gesture, he looked at her with determination. I know what a photo is! That makes sense!" His words held a sort of excitement and eagerness to them, when one would likely expect embarrassment or shame. Truth be told he was slightly embarrassed, having been in society for years and yet never able to place two and two together. Still, he learned something new and she seemed nice enough.

As she continued to explain and seemed to get distracted by a far off idea, she suddenly exploded with excitement. Directing her full burst of energy towards the owner of the store, Finn listened intently to what she had to say before glancing over to the owner, who seemed to agree. "I uhm," he started, his voice a gentle speaking tone before he turned his attention to Evangeline. For the first time, he seemed to be noticeably embarrassed. His cheeks had tinted the faintest of pinks as he leaned in closer, dropping his voice to more of a whisper. "I'm not a very good baker."

As his mind danced back to years past with Jake, it was painfully obvious that Finn was not an artist when it came to creating edibles. Simple things or recipes he managed, and some more intricate cooking practices were doable. Something about baking, though, had eluded him all these years. "How about, uh," he started, putting his hands out in front of him and looking at each of them as if hoping to see an idea grasped within his palms. Looking back to her, he tilted his head to the side as if he were confused by his own thoughts. "How about I help, but you do most of the baking? Is that okay?" His embarrassment had now left, and it was obvious he was just trying to help get the job done.

Finn was by no means a stupid boy, and much of the real world he had been able to understand. One of his more catching qualities was the purity of who he was. He had not been tainted by the need to represent a certain person in certain audiences, and so those who met Finn all had the pleasure of meeting the real him. Whether they took it as such, or found more annoyance in the meeting, it was up to them. Still, at least no one could say that they didn't know who Finn truly was.

Bake a cake …Did she know how to do that? Eva visibly paled. She didn’t even notice Finn going red beside her because she was busy raking her brains for accurate steps to baking a cake. Her uncertain eyes wandered over to her manager who, to her irritation, seemed to be on the verge of laughing his head off. Damn him. He knew very well on the kind of lifestyle Eva lived. She wasn’t pampered but she was able to get anything she wanted with a click of her fingers. How would she ever know how to bake?

“Uh…uhm,” she looked up at the white ceiling, expecting all the answers to her predicament to be there. Olly seemed to have got the wind of it because he chuckled, turning Eva a little red, and went back into the room again. For a moment, she heard the faint sound of something shuffling and moving until he came back, blowing onto a dust covered cookbook. “I used to use this back when I was just learning to bake haha,” he chuckled again and handed the book over to Eva who was still trying to not think about the embarrassing sight she had become. Why did she even suggest baking when she didn’t know how to do it herself?! Ugh.

Eva flipped through the book, not even turning to Finn so as to slowly recover her dignity. “You can use that book while baking. It has all sorts of sweet recipes,” Olly continued, interrupting Eva to grab the edge of the book and flip through the pages himself, stopping at page no: 23 where it showed a nice picture of a nice sponge cake with chocolate frosting. “This isn’t the simplest in the book but even a beginner should be able to make it if they follow the instructions correctly,” Olly advised, moving back as the slightly amused cameraman began setting up his camera again.

She scratched the tip of her nose, still a teeny bit embarrassed, but turned to face Finn with the book in her hand. “What do you think?” she asked him, handing over the book. “We are going to set up all our ingredients first. If I read it out, can you find them and bring them here for me from there?” she asked, pointing to where Olly had placed all the ingredients he found at.

“Cake flour, baking powder, milk, unsalted butter, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla extract,” she listed, turning around every now and then to check if Finn was grabbing the right things. “Unsweetened chocolate, confectioner’s sugar,” Eva’s eyes wrinkled at that. What was confectioner’s sugar? How was it different from normal sugar? She shrugged. “and decorative sprinkles,” she finished, letting a long sigh escape her. With a hand placed over the counter, she turned her head to watch the boy that she had a feeling would most likely fumble with the ingredients.

She asked him what he thought, and to be honest he didn't know what to say. He looked at the recipe, and a lot of the ingredients looked relatively common sense. He wasn't a baker by any means, but he knew what went into making cake. There were a few things that he wasn't sure of, simply because the recipe's his brother made were much more basic. Still, looking at the picture of what was suppose to be the end result, it certainly looked delicious. "Looks great to me," he said with a smile and flashed her a laugh. "I'll do my best!"

As she read out the ingredients, he grabbed each one. The process was pretty grinding, and was relatively boring work. So instead, he decided call things back. "Unsweet chalk-oh-late," he called putting extreme emphasis and awkward pronunciation on each syllable. "Confectio-" he paused, looking at the bag. "This is gross." Dropping the bag on the edge of the table, well out of Eva's reach, he continued on the same path through the rest of the ingredients.

"You need the confectioners sugar to top off the cupcakes!" Olly's voice was annoyed, obviously out of patience for Finn entirely. "It tastes like garbage, no way!" The cameraman was chuckling at this point, and as Olly's face went red, Finn looked at Evangeline. "Do you want that sugar stuff in the food?"

Her assumption of him had been wrong, as she'd plainly see. He had grabbed the exact ingredients as they were asked and ordered them by when they were called, making sure they were all within reach of her. Had he not been in such a rush to get things for his sick brother, even the escapade with the door would have never happened. He was by no means a dumb man, only one without a solid grasp of normal by societal views. Still, it was now her decision on whether or not they'd use the confectioners sugar.

Eva pouted. ‘Aww,’ she made the sound in her head, watching Finn fish out all the ingredients she asked for like a pro. Honestly, she really had been expecting the boy to fail a little. Her only amusing moment came when Finn found the confectioners’ sugar and dropped it far away from her after claiming it to be gross. Curious enough, Eva scooted over to where he dropped the bag and peeked in, raising an eyebrow when she saw nothing out of the ordinary. It looked like powdered sugar and Eva was still not sure what made it different to the normal ones until Olly called out something about using it for topping off.

She shrugged, letting her eyes go back to the book to answer Finn’s question. “Well, the recipe states that we need it. So I suppose we will have to use it at some point,” she replied to the relief of Olly who nodded approvingly. “Of course you’ll need it!” he commented, seemingly pleased with Eva but she didn’t miss the quick glare he threw at Finn.

“Alright! Since we now have all the ingredients, let’s get to baking!” she cheered, grabbing the necessary utensils off the shelves. “Finn, can you preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit?” she called over her shoulder while one of her hands reached for a baking pan. The other reached for a parchment paper that she laid over the bottom of the pan and began buttering it, her eyes moving from the book to the pan and back to the book as she tried to follow the instructions as precisely as possible. The cameraman clicked away when she licked a bit of butter off her fingers as Eva tried to not forget that they were in the middle of a photo shoot.

Perhaps it was what they were doing, or perhaps it was simply his lack of awareness at the moment, but he didn't notice her pout. To be honest, he had only just begun calming down enough to fully take in his surroundings. It was far too late to feel embarrassment from the broken door. It was far too late to try to make amends with the shop keeper. He wasn't too concerned, truth be told. He had enough jewel to fully repair the door, no matter how nice it had been before he had accidentally ripped it open.

He had no idea that those around him had expected him to be of a duller mind, nor did he have any reason to care. Right now he was only thinking about whether or not he could replace some of the chocolate frosting with vanilla, so that he could give some to Jake at a later date. That said, it didn't keep him from helping with the baking.

As she came over and inspected the sugar, Finn wrinkled his nose and shrugged. "Alright then, I'll just have to trust you." He wasn't going to demand they alter the recipe just for him. If truth be told, he didn't remember ever having the sugar with something else. He simply recalled a time where Jake had him try an actual handful of confectioner sugar, which was one of the worst decisions he had ever made. And that was saying something.

As he preheated the oven and she asked for him to help sift the flour, he merely nodded with an audible "Mhm!" before making his way over to her. On his way over he grabbed a fine strainer, and finally made it over to her and held it up. "Got this! Where do ya need it?" As she prepared the bowl and the flour, he'd let her instruct him as needed until he was ready to help sift through the flour, breaking up any chunks that would have otherwise caused issue in the baking process.

"You're pretty good at this," Finn whispered with a smile. As they finished sifting, he quickly raised the strainer up, which caused a light puff of the remaining flour to go into the air and gently coat their faces, clothes, and the surrounding bags. As Olly practically choked in rage, Finn burst out laughing and put the strainer to the side. He hadn't been able to just let go and goof around in ages, which was something he genuinely enjoyed from time to time. Being able to do it now was...

Eva blinked, not expecting for the puff of white flour that now covered their faces and clothes. She stopped whatever she was doing midway, wiping a bit of flour off her face to stare at it and suddenly burst out laughing along with Finn. It was a nice change for once, goofing up, and just playing around. Olly, of course, looked outraged, the cameraman was still amused, and Hanase san had his face buried in his palms, which only cracked Eva up even more. She suddenly had an urge to throw flour at everyone, but decided against it when she remembered they still had a shooting to finish.

She quickly grabbed a few tissues off a box her eyes caught sitting on a table and went back to wipe the flour off a laughing Finn’s face. She dusted off the flour on his clothes before turning the same kind of attention to herself. “Haha, I never expected that to happen,” she laughed, setting the bowl of sifted flour off to use later. She dusted a bit of flour off the recipe book to read about the remaining steps, making a hmm sound as she tried to gather the rest of what they should be doing.

“Now we need to heat one cup of milk,” she called out, turning to get the bottle of milk. She placed it in front of Finn as if to say he should do that while she prepared some other stuff. She grabbed some butter and placed it along with the milk. “Once the milk is heated, we have to stir a bit of butter into it. You can do that while I prepare the rest of the batter,” she instructed, occasionally rubbing the back of her head nervously since at this point, she was simply following whatever the recipe said without questioning it since she couldn’t even if she wanted to. Eva had zero knowledge in cooking or baking.

As she guessed that Finn would heat up the milk and stuff, she turned away from him, grabbing a large bowl and a couple of eggs as she did so. Strangely enough, this time, she wasn’t even expecting the boy to mess anything up. Maybe she had misjudged his chara a little bit back when she found him to be goofy. Well, it only made getting to know the boy all that much interesting.

She started beating the eggs in the bowl with a hand mixer, adding sugar, a pinch of salt, and some vanilla essence before beating it all over again. By the time she was done, the batter was slightly thicker and higher in volume. “Did you heat the milk yet?” she turned, asking Finn if he was done with his part of the work.

The job was relatively straight forward, and something that Finn could actually do. While he wasn't the best at baking, he could make decent soup. What was heating up milk and adding butter if not making a little soup? So that's what he did. Taking one of the pans, filling it up with the milk and the the needed amount of butter, he put it on the stove top and put it on high so as to get it to the needed temperature as soon as possible while also stirring the contents of the pot when needed.

Finn's mind danced back to just a few moments ago. He had been relatively taken off guard when she reached up to clean his face of the flour. It was a kind gesture, something that he certainly could have done himself had she not been so quick on the draw. Glancing over to her, quickly noticing the look of concentration and nervousness on her face, he couldn't help but utter a quick laugh. Reaching over and placing an extremely gentle and playful punch on her arm, he offered a thumbs up. "You're a nice person, Evangeline. Consider me your friend from now on. You ever need anything, just let me know."

The entire charade thus far had been filled with the sound of shutters closing beyond them, the cameraman constantly taking pictures from different angles and using different lighting. They might not have been doing the best of poses during their time together, but one couldn't argue the genuine nature of their enjoyment. Their smiles were real, their body language overflowed with amusement. This was arguably a better photo shoot than they could have gotten with posing and faux emotions, regardless of how good a model she was.

As the butter fully melted into the milk that was now giving up small bubbles, Finn turned the temperature down and began to stir it constantly so as to make the butter fully meld in with the white liquid. "This is ready whenever you need it, oh Master of Baking."

Eva wasn’t expecting to be told something like that out of the blue and honestly enough, it surprised her and gave her feelings that she was confused over. She didn’t recall a time that she had ever had such warm feelings that made her really want to smile. At least, not after that. It had been locked away years ago inside a Pandora’s box that she strongly decided to never open again. For years, she kept it sealed, staying away from whatever that would disrupt it and yet, today, and for a short while now, she felt the locked box being pelted with powerful stones that threatened to open it. She felt scared and uncomfortable at the thought of it but when she saw that look of honesty in Finn’s smile, Eva couldn’t help but smile back; A real smile that she hadn’t done in a very long time.

The sound of camera shutters fell silent on Eva’s ears as she genuinely enjoyed the rest of their interactions. She was happy, a bit worried, but happy nonetheless. Somehow, she even felt Hanase san’s intense stare at her back. Eva didn’t want to acknowledge it. She had actually taken a liking to someone enough to let her masks slip and Finn’s genuine words in his words had done the trick. It probably didn’t mean anything for a long term change. Maybe it was just for that moment. But she simply wanted to let the complex feelings go.

“Haha, I don’t know where that came from but hey, it’s the same here. You’re actually a pretty fun person to hang with,” she told him truthfully, letting the joyous atmosphere overflow. She wasn’t even paying real attention to the photo shoot anymore. She found herself smiling like an idiot for no reason, a smile that stayed for the rest of the day.

She turned her full attention the cake now, mixing all the stuff in to create a rather delicious smelling batter that Eva was satisfied with. She had added little sugar for her own taste, a slightly selfish judgement, but she thought it would be ok when Olly nodded approvingly. Once it was all done, she put it into the over, letting it bake while they cleaned everything up.

Once it was done, it was time for decorations. She thought she would leave that up to Finn. “Here we go,” she placed the cake down. “Decorate it however you like! I really have no preference for these,” she told him, standing aside to let him do the work. When it’s done, the cameraman would turn his camera off, a satisfied smile playing at his lips. “I got really good content here, Hanase san and Olly san,” he told them. “I’ll have them all done and printed real soon,” he packed up his bags with that. Hanase san and Olly followed him out to discuss more details while Eva and Finn was left alone with the cake that they would probably have to finish themselves.

“So why did you come to the shop this morning? Did you want to get something?”

It was obvious to anyone watching, including Finn, that Evangeline had been taken aback by his words. They were rather random, and seemingly without any sort of provocation. Still, he meant them. She was a kind individual from everything he had seen thus far. The more his mind had time to grind through the events of the day, the more he realized that she consistently spoke out in order to assist him. He would have been kicked the curb, potentially banned from the store, if not for her. Now instead, he was in here baking with a new friend. He'd likely still have to pay for the damages, but that was nothing he couldn't manage.

Her smile from that point on also seemed different. Finn couldn't go so far as to call it more genuine, as he had only just met the girl. He didn't know what was or wasn't with her, and wouldn't be pompous enough to declare otherwise. Still, there seemed to be an extra pep in her step that he couldn't help but notice. It made the rest of the baking process go by relatively smoothly, and before long they had a finished product sitting before them. It had been baked to near perfection, rising part way out of the pan in a crumby spongy goodness.

Apparently though, it wasn't quite finished. There was still the matter of decoration, using the frosting and other decorative ingredients that still lined the table. At this point, she left the task up to Finn. "I'm on it!" With a spatula and a tongue stuck out of his mouth for concentration, Finn got to work. Spreading the frosting slowly and smoothly as to not break parts of the cake, the entirety of their creation was soon covered in vanilla frosting.

Despite its coverage, it was by no means a professional job. There were parts of the cake that had much thicker concentrations of the frosting than others, and parts of the cake that had only a thin slab. Finn smoothed it out as well as possible, but it quickly became evident that this was not his expertise. After a minute or two of trying to fix up the finished product, he sighed and flashed Evangeline a smile. "Done! Ish."

With that done, Finn gave Olly some jewel to cover the door expense, which was more than enough. He figured he should cover some of the chaos that ensued after as well, and it wasn't as if Finn exactly valued money. Thanking everyone for their time, and then thanking Evangeline specifically, Finn made his way from the shop. It had been an interesting experience, and he had made a new friend out of it.

That day had somehow turned memorable for Eva. As she said her good byes and watched Finn walk away, a true smile spread across her lips. The cake they had made together sat to her side, half eaten, and half crumbling. For a first attempt at baking, they had done well but not perfectly, and despite adding less sugar, it still tasted a bit sweeter than how Eva liked.

She didn’t think that day would turn out to be like that. The last thing she was expecting when she sat inside the shop flipping through a menu book was that she would find something to do with someone fun. Finn had initially made the mark of a fool in her judgement but he proved her wrong mightily enough by turning all of her expectations down. But it all turned out to be for the best in the end because somehow, Eva had gained a bit of experience with something that she thought she would never have.

In all honesty, the idea of letting all she had worked hard to create go and become her weak self was a scary thought. She didn’t want to make relationships that could possibly ruin her one day. She didn’t want to trust and care for someone so much so that anything that may happen to them would indirectly affect her. Eva didn’t want to be her mother. She wanted to live for herself.

“Let’s go, Eva,” she heard a warm voice behind her. Hanase san must have finished discussing everything with Olly now. “Yah, let’s go. I want to get some good sleep and plums,” she said, getting up and walking out the door with her manager right after waving at Olly. Before she left, her eyes lingered over the cake, a strange feeling of hope suddenly emerging. Maybe they could meet again.